The Unkown Factor
by Nemisses
Summary: How Ziva and Kate got to know each other. After the rest of the team find out how will they react to this piece of information.
1. Chapter 1

This is a story about how Kate and Ziva got to know each other. It happened during the time when Ari abducted Kate, I bended the story somewhat, just go with it.

The unkown factor

Jenny called Gibbs, how was she going to bring this. It would open up old wounds, but she needed to do this. "Jethro, I have something to show you all, bring your team to MTAC"

Jenny whispered something to Ziva when she got into the room, and right after that Ziva backed up and left MTAC again. Gibbs wondered why, but left it at that.

Jenny sighed "the CIA found this in their archives, it was filmed during Kate's capture by Ari, apparentley he was a little paranoid, and filmed just about everything, like he wanted to know every move his team made".

She started the tape and the inside of a house was revealed, they saw Kate sitting there, and heard her talking to Ari. "you have just made the biggest mistake of your life, kidnapping a federal agent"

Ari just smiled "I'll be the judge of that, but so far I don't regard a single moment. Feel free to walk around, there is no where you can go so enjoy good middle eastern hospitality" They saw Kate walk around and at one point she walked outside and just sat on a chair which was located on a porch overlooking a lake. Ari joined her soon after woods and once again they engaged in a conversation.

"who is that by the lake" The team in MTAC saw Ari's face darken "that over there is empty shell of a person, she was send on a suicide mission by Mossad and she never really came back again, the mission went wrong and she got caught, when they traded her for one of their own we got her back, but they broke her, it's not really her anymore, and I cannot seem to get through to her"

Kate looked at Ari, "why go through all this trouble for her, you shot one of your own team today she meant nothing to you"

Ari looked at Kate "love" and that was all he said.

"do you think I can go up there and talk to her" Ari looked at Kate. "I don't know, she has been avoiding human contact, exept for me, but feel free to try, it's not like you have anything else to do" and once again they saw Ari´s evil grin appear. "the basterd"said Tony.

The team saw Kate walk up to the lake and when the camera angle switched they could clearly see a woman sitting there, they saw Kate sit down and softly she said "hello"

The woman didn't even turn around "laleget dereg" (go away)

"I am sorry but I don't understand what you are saying" This time the woman did turn around and the entire team held their breath, the woman was Ziva, but not the one they all had to come to know in these last two years. The Ziva on tape looked dead, eyes that were lifeless, extremely thin and a scar that just ran next to her hairline on the right side of her face. "who are you"

" I am a special agent Caitlin Todd from NCIS"

Ziva didn´t seem to care much anymore and turned away from Kate, staring out into nothingness again. Kate decided to sit next to the very small fragile looking woman. "I want to be left alone, go away"

Kate sighed "Well I want to leave but I've got no place to go, Ari is keeping me prisoner here"

Ziva shrugged her shoulders, like she couldn´t care less, and again she fell silent, she just sat there, staring into, well as far as Kate could tell into nothing. Ziva stood up and moved a view feet away from Kate, and they all could see she was in pain doing so, she could barely move, but clearly didn't want any close contact with Kate.

Kate sighed and started to get up with the intention of walking back to the house. "why did he take you" Kate turned, "I don't know, as far as I can tell, he has no motive for doing so other than to piss my boss off" Ziva turned and faced Kate "Ari always has a motive, he never does anything without a plan to back it up, so why are you here"

"I really don't know, I've been asking myself that the entire day" but meanwhile Kate knew why Ari had brought her here, she would be able to identify wich chopper was the one with the president in it, or so Ari would seem to think.

A view hours passed according to the tape when they saw Ari and Ziva in the kitchen having a very a heated argument, they were yelling at one another since the yelling was done in both Arabic and Hebrew they couldn't make any sence of it, so Jardine was brought in and the tape was backed up. Jardine told them she could translate but it wasn't very accurate due to the fact that two languages were involved. "just try" barked Gibbs.

Jardine started to translate "she is asking him what he was thinking kidnapping a federal agent, or was he not thinking at all. He is telling her not to interfere, she should stay out of this. She is pretty pissed off at him, cause this will be a problem, no law enforcement agency will let him take a federal agent without a fight, how stupid can he be" All of a sudden they saw Ziva throw glas in Ari's direction, he started laughing and walked over to Ziva giving her a hug and whispering to her "he little one, you have found your fire again"

The following day they saw Kate walked up to Ziva at the lake again, and again it was Kate that did most of the talking, and Ziva did all of the staring into ………………

**TBC….**


	2. Chapter 2

Here is part 2, I kept changing and changing it, that's why it took a little longer than I anticipated in posting the second chapter. I hope you will like it, somehow somewhere in the back of my mind something is missing, and I cannot put my finger on it. Hopefully you'll tell me. It's short, but that is because I just couldn't quite get it up to speed.

**Unkown factor**

**Part 2**

All of a sudden after what appeared to be hours, and from what the team could see on tape it turned out the be indeed several hours Ziva turned around, she held some carkeys in her hand. " take these"

Kate looked at Ziva with a surprised look on her face. " why are you doing this"

Ziva completly ingnored Kate and stood up and pointed at a car standing at the end of what appeared to be a driveway.

" those are the keys to that black sedan, take it and leave when darkness falls"

" why are you doing this"

" because I think my brother has lost it, and somehow he has chosen you to be his muse, and this is my way of protecting him"

" Ari is you brother" asked Kate with a high pitched voice. Ziva never responded to that, like she didn't even noticed Kate's voice when she realized Ari turned out to be the woman's brother.

" when you get back, you will forget you ever saw me, you don't know me, or what I did here, you will not mention me to anyone, and I want you word on it"

Kate nodded "you have my word"

Which in a way was an easy deal to make since she had no clue as to who this woman was, she never mentioned her name or what she was doing here. Kate knew this much, she wasn't part of Ari's team because all she did was walk up to that damm lake in the morning and just sit there all day long, staring at it like a zombie.

That night Kate slipped out of the house and walked to the black sedan, she was praying no one would notice her being gone.

" I hope federal agents are better trained than you are, I could hear you leave from the other end of the house" Ziva stood in the dark near the car.

" God, woman you scared me" Kate looked at Ziva and for the first time noticed a slight smile on the young womans face.

" You live for this, don't you" said Kate as she slipped into the car.

" what are you doing" Ziva pointed to the house. " start the car here and they will come after you and I won't be able to do anything to save you then, put it in neutral en we'll push it further up the road so they won't hear it when you do start it."

The two woman pushed the car down the road, but it didn't take long for Ziva to start breathing heavily and shortly after that she stopped holding her ribcage in pain.

" this…..should………..do…….it, you better……get going" Ziva collapsed onto the ground, breathing heavily. " Are you oke, you need medical attention" Kate walked over and wanted to help her get up again.

"Don't touch me. I don't want you to touch me, if I see one more doctor that gives me any kind of attention I'll put a bullet through his head"

Kate turned and walked back to the car, cleary not really knowing how to respons to such a verbal promise. "Well I just want to…. thanks"

" When you meet Ari again, he'll kill you."

" why"

" You got away" Ziva turned around and started walking towards her favorite spot, the lake.

" He will not harm you, will he, I mean for helping me"

" No"

Kate turned to the young woman. " for what's it's worth, thank you. I owe you my life"

Kate got into the car and noticed a gun lying on the seat next to her. She smiled, the woman had thought of everything. There was a note attached to it. " don't turn back or I will be your judge, jury and executioner"

MTAC was quite when the tape ended, the entire team was at a loss for words for what they had seen. Gibbs knew that Kate hadn't mention Ziva in any of her reports about the abduction, and as to how she got away from Ari, but now they all knew. The only reason Kate got away from Ari the first time was the fact that Ziva had given her a way out. Ziva was the unknown factor in Kate's report, the secret she had kept all that time. Gibbs had always know that Kate was hiding something, but he never in his wildest dream could have imaged that it could be Ziva.

The tape had shown the huge fight between Ziva and Ari when Ari came to realize his own sister helped to Kate get away, however he didn't hurt Ziva in anyway, but they all could cleary see the trust between brother and sister was gone. Gibbs realized with Ziva helping Kate get away she had lost her grip on Ari as a control officer, he didn't trust her enough anymore to confide in her. Ziva had abused his trust in her in order to get Kate out, and with that Ari had gotten more out of control then he already was, he had lost the trust in his one and only friend, his sister.

McGee was the first one to speak " Oh God, they knew each other, Kate and Ziva knew each other"

**TBC…….**

**R&R please.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**The Unknow Factor**

Ziva was very nervous. She knew they had seen the tapes that were found after they knew where Ari's last hide out was after he had kidnapped Kate Todd. When she saw the entire team leave MTAC her first reaction was to run, hide and never come back. She was afraid of their reactions, would they still talk to her. She didn't tell them she met Kate, she didn't tell them that she was the one that got Kate out of there, gotten her killed. Ziva still regretted that decision, she felt that if she hadn't done that Kate Todd would still be alive. She should have know that Ari never left any lose ends behind, she should have warned Kate that Ari would come after her simply because she got away. She had bruised his ego even though he knew Ziva had lend a helping hand, but he couldn't kill his sister so he had killed he next best thing which was Kate Todd.

Gibbs entered the bullpen walked up to Ziva and before she could even say or do anything he removed part of her hair away which revealed a thin white scar running all the way along her hairline. Mmmm, he said, turned around sat at his chair and just continued with the paperwork that he was handling before the Director had called them in. The others just stared at her. Gibbs looked up, " don't you all have work to do"

The team not knowing what to do with the information they received from the director went their separate ways. Ziva had to get to Abby's lab in order to drop of some evidence that was found at a crime sence they had visited earlier. She knew that Abby was the one that had been the most hostile towards her after she replaced Kate and she dreaded to go down there. She quietly entered the lab dropped of the evidence, and while Abby signed for it she slowly turned around and started to walk away when she heard a soft voice saying. " thanks for getting Kate out"

Ziva turned around, looked at Abby " I did more harm than good with that". Slowly Ziva made her way to the elevator, she pushed the button to go up when all of a sudden she was pulled into the mother of all hugs by Abby. "it's not your fault, stop feeling guilty"

" Don't you get it Abs, I never should have gotten her out of there, Ari wasn't the type that would let anyone get away from him, in that way he was like our father. You can run but you can never hide".

Ziva tried to push Abby away, she couldn't deal with this, she hadn't expected this. She thought Abby would be angry, mad, filled with rage that she had gotten Kate Todd killed but instead she got love.

Tony and McGee were waiting in front of the elevator when it revealed the two woman in a sort of dance like struggle. Ziva was trying to get out of Abby's hug and Abby was holding on to Ziva for dear life."Although I am pleased to see this kind of girl on girl action but Gibbs wants us on a case" Tony said." This is more important than any case you will ever deal with Tony, this is about friendship"

Abby gave Tony a headslap which in turn gave Ziva the opportunity to get away from Abby's hold on her. She quickly moved to the other side of the elevator so that Abby couldn't just grab her again. McGee saw Ziva's discomfort and moved between Abby and Ziva and sighed, there once was a time that Abby couldn't stand the little Israeli woman but that didn't seem to be the case anymore. McGee knew Abby had a hard time dealing with Kate's death, but he didn't think she would react to this morning's revelations in the way that she just did, hugging Ziva to death wasn't the kind of response he thought she would have. Ziva must have grown on Abby more than she would dare to admit, but then again the entire team cared more for Ziva then they would dare to admit.

The elevator rode to the basement in silence. McGee, Tony and Ziva left the elevator and Abby went up to her lab again. McGee handed over Ziva's backpack and after a not so loud "thank you" on Ziva's part they decided all three of them were to go in the truck. Tony made sure he was the one to drive since almost getting killed by Ziva on the last three rides to a crime sence. He didn't know what to say to Ziva after this morning, she saved Kate but never told anyone about this, why not. He thought they were friends, or weren't they.

" why didn't you tell us" Tony mentally headslapped himself, why did he have to bring that up now, on the way to a crime sence. McGee looked stunned and didn't know what to do, was it too late to jump out of the truck, was the truck already at full speed, could he get out. He didn't feel save sitting in the middle. " because I got her killed" Ziva stared out of the window, trying desperately not to show any weakness. Tony hit the break and the truck came to fast stop. He got out walked around the truck, pulled Ziva's door open and yelled " what made you think that, you got her out, Ari would have killed her right then and there, don't be so goddamm stupid woman"

Ziva jumped out the truck and went after Tony when he made his way back to the driver's seat. " If I hadn't gotten her out he would never have gone after her, the fact that she got away made him angry, she got away from him and he couldn't deal with that. So yes, I got her killed, I got you team member killed, are you happy now that I have admitted that, I feel guilty"

Tony looked at her, he couldn't believe she felt responsible for Kate's dead. " did you pull the trigger, Ziva, did you aim the rifle at Kate's head. I don't think so"

Ziva fell to her knees, " no, but I should have seen it coming, I should have stopped him, I should have……" McGee had gotten out of the truck as well, he kneeled beside her and decided just to hold her, he now understood why Abby had hugged Ziva in the elevator. Abby had seen the guilt but most of all she had seen the fear in Ziva's eyes. Fear for being left all alone again, she had found a family in NCIS but now she could lose it all and she was afraid of doing so.

Tony saw what McGee did, kneeled down as well and the three of them all hugged each other. " If any of you mention this to anyone at NCIS he or she will regret it for the rest of his or her live" Tony stood up and looked at his team members. " Do I make myself clear"

" Oh, god, Gibbs………….. he is going to kill us" All three of them jumped in the truck. " Ziva, you drive" Tony was hoping he wasn't going to regret this, but the moment she hit the pedals he already knew that he would. Gibbs looked at his watch for a third time, even Ducky's truck had beaten them to the crime sence, where the hell was his team. Gibbs heard the truck before he even saw it, it came around the corner on two wheels and stopped just inches from Gibbs. He watched them get out and knew something had occurred on the ride over here. All three of them ran to the back of the truck and got their gear out. Without saying a word all three of them got to work, silently knowing what the other one would do, nothing was said but they all knew what to do. Gibbs saw his TEAM at work and knew, they may have hit a rough patch, but his TEAM would pull through, because after all they were family.

**The END.**

This final chapter almost got the better of me. I wanted some humor in it, but not to much since it's a serious issue. I am not entirely satisfied with it, but on the other hand it was the best I think I could have without compromising to much.


End file.
